Posts filed under Opinion

Rumours are circulating that Nokia may be working on a new class of mobile phone that will be announced at this year’s MWC. Based on the form factor of the E90 communicator, and beginning with the launch of the Nokia N97, the Finnish mobile phone giant could be about to unleash a new range of netbooks on us that literally are multimedia computers, and will enable us once and for all to unshackle ourselves from our desktops.

“Where’s the evidence?!” I hear you cry. Case for the prosecution after the jump.

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed since the launch of the iPhone, it’s how few phone companies have been prepared to take on the iPhone at its game. All the iPhone “killers” out there from the major phone companies are really nothing of the sort – they’re just touchscreen phones that pretend they’re iPhone competitors, but they don’t really go for the throat.

Before you start protesting and throwing examples of your favourite phone at me as a demonstration of how wrong I am, Sony have very kindly come up with all the proof I need – and it’s not even a phone!

In an intriguing article, long-time technology pundit Bob Cringely has made a compelling case for the death of Windows Mobile. He is, as he admits, no expert on mobile phones, but this counts in his favour as he has no bias towards one platform or another.

Analyzing the current mobile phone market and some of the announcements that have been made this year, he predicts that Apple’s iPhone will become the dominant smartphone platform, Google’s Android will be second, and Symbian and RIM fighting each other for third place. Windows Mobile, meanwhile, will simply wither on the vine and eventually be killed off by Microsoft.

If you take a look at the mobile phone news these past few months, there’s one thing that’s been dominating global coverage: smartphones, and in particular, a confusing plethora of new models, applications and features that have suddenly swarmed onto the market.

Traditionally seen as ugly phones for business, smartphones are set to become the big thing in the mobile phone market for 2009, with no fewer than five key smartphone platforms (all of which, of course, are incompatible with each other!)

There’s fierce competition between smartphone manufacturers, not just to attract users, but also developers, as the more applications a platform has, the more likely it is that other developers will develop applications for that platform: success breeds success.

Which reminds me of another, similarly competitive market: games consoles, which has seen some spectacular winners and losers over the years. What’s more, if you compare the different strategies of the different console platforms, you’ll find them remarkably similar to the strategies currently being employed by the different smartphone platforms.

So is Nokia really following Nintendo’s strategy? It certainly is, while Android is set for nothing less than world domination.

Read on after the jump to see why.

Leaked pictures of the Sony Ericsson Remi have emerged, which show a super-thin (10mm) candy bar phone that has overtures of Sony Ericsson’s old T610 phone. Looking rather stylish in a minimalistic kind of way, the Remi (which is currently a codename, and not the final name of the phone) will be a mid-range phone, and quite highly specced, with HSDPA and a 3.2 megapixel camera .

In fact most of the features are already on the Sony Ericsson W890, as the Remi is pretty much exactly the same phone, just without the Walkman branding. All of which leads me to wonder quite why the Walkman branding has suddenly been dropped…

Things are looking pretty grim for Motorola. The US giant, which used to be the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer, has decided to split itself in two, spinning off the loss-making mobile phone division as a separate company, and concentrating instead on cable-TV set-top boxes, walkie-talkies and handheld scanners.

The reason for this is that the mobile devices division is losing so much money ($1.6 billion in just 18 months) that it’s in danger of dragging the company down with it. By spinning the division off as a separate company, it’s hoped that it can refocus its energies onto the mobile phone market and turn itself around, while a separate Motorola that focuses on set top boxes and the like will not be hurt should the new mobile phone company ultimately fail.

Sounds simple, but Motorola really has its work cut out – the cost of splitting the company in two is estimated at $750 million, while the new mobile phone company may need up to $4 billion just to stay afloat for the next two years.

More details after the jump.

In our final look at what’s coming in 2008, I’ll attempt to divine the tea-leaves to see what general trends we can expect from our phones.

Camera phone improvements

One key feature in 2007 was the improvement in camera phones, with megapixellage rising to 5 megapixels for the top end phones, and 3 megapixels for the medium range phones. This trend should continue in 2008, with top-end phones reaching 7-8 megapixels and mid-range phones getting a respectable 5 megapixels.

Expect to see improved image stabilization features as well, plus various other innovations taken from digital cameras, all designed to improve picture quality. 2008 really will see phones and cameras converge, with improved flashes, increasing use of auto-focus, reduced lag in taking pictures, and more phones appearing with optical zoom.

More mobile phone trends after the jump…

Now here’s some interesting news. In a fascinating interview with MobileToday, Nokia’s UK MD Simon Ainslie has been talking about the company’s long term strategy, and explaining its purchase of seemingly non-mobile phone related companies such as Navteq.

In the interview, Ainslie talks of Nokia becoming “a Web 2.0 company, and no longer just a device company,” and effectively doing what Nintendo did with the video game market with the Wii: completely changing the rules of the game on its own terms.

More info after the jump.

Christmas is fast approaching, so it’s time to do a few recommendations to help those of you looking to buy a mobile phone for someone as the perfect Christmas present.

The first recommendation is in the camera phone category. Camera phones have been released by the bucket load this year, with 5 megapixels now the norm for the top-end phones. These phones now come with picture quality so good, they’re actually on a par with digital cameras from just a few years ago.

Read on to see which camera phone should you buy for Christmas.

The New York Times has an interesting article in which they brand the mobile Web, and 3G networks in particular, a failure. According to the article, data makes up only 12 percent of revenue for mobile phone operators, while a survey by the research firm The Yankee Group shows that only 13 percent of US mobile phone users use their phone to browse the Web more than once a month.

For the most part, these depressing statistics are true. However, things aren’t as bad as the article makes out. Indeed, with the right device, the mobile Web is here, now, and is gloriously usable.

More details after the jump.